The present invention relates generally to devices and methods for determining characteristics of particles flowing through a flow cytometer, e.g., via fluorescence analysis of samples, and more particularly to devices and methods for sorting particles, e.g., sorting cells in a flow cytometer based, for example, on their characteristics.
The isolation of subpopulations or even single cells from heterogeneous populations has a variety of applications in modern biology and biomedicine. Some conventional techniques for separating cell subpopulations include fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS), laser capture microdissection, and DEP array sorting. These techniques, while employed routinely in cell sorting applications, present a number of shortcomings. For example, FACS, which is widely used across all areas of cell biology, lack sub-cellular resolution and hence makes sorting decisions based only on an average of a cell's parameters. Moreover, conventional sorting methods based on imaging cells are not generally capable of being used in high throughput cell separation applications due to their high latency in making sorting decisions.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and systems for sorting cells, for example, in a flow cytometry system.